This invention relates to a power press and more particularly to a safety guard for preventing accidental movement of the reciprocally movable press ram or platen. Platen presses operate under high energy for stamping, forming or trimming operations and are a cause of injury to the hands and/or arms of the operator if the work area between the platens is not clear prior to actuation of the press. OSHA and ANSI standards dictate that power press operators be protected against a deadfall (i.e. a free-fall of the ram) or an accidental trip of the press when changing or repairing dies or other tooling in a power press. In the past, the most common safety procedure has been to use metal safety blocks of, for example, magnesium, aluminum of light weight alloys of such metals. The blocks are made in a range of sizes from about 4 to 24 inches. The blocks are inserted into the open area of the press between the die bed or plate and the upper movable platen or ram of the press when tooling in the press is changed or repaired. However, proper utilization of safety blocks is at best difficult to monitor and is expensive to implement and maintain. One difficulty is that manufacturing processes require presses individually and collectively to have a wide range of press shut heights or openings. ("Press shut height" is the height of the reciprocally movable ram above the press bed at the lowest point of the ram movement cycle.) To properly guard presses with openings of variable heights, it has been necessary (1) to make time consuming ram adjustments to make safety blocks fit, (2) to have available several varying heights of expensive safety blocks which are attachable together to form a variety of composite heights or (3) to design subbases for all dies and tooling to standardize press shut heights.
Still another problem is that in many cases the use of safety blocks restricts access to the work area in the press opening and limits the size and configuration of dies that can be placed in a press while maintaining proper guarding for the operator.
Lastly, when the operator cannot be adequately protected, the tooling must be removed from the press for repair. This is, of course, burdensome.